This work presents a calibrated virtual photon-counting micro-CT platform combining realistic mouse vasculature, AI-generated tumors, and calibrated iodine/barium imaging.
Nadkarni R, Clark DP, Allphin AJ, Qi Y, Mowery Y, Segars PW, Badea CT. Virtual photon-counting micro-CT platform for simulation of head and neck cancer imaging in mice. Phys Med Biol. 2026 Jun 5. doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ae7957.
QIAL’s strong SPIE Medical Imaging 2026 contributions: virtual photon-counting micro-CT, self-supervised DL denoising, brain–heart imaging in APOE mice, and high-resolution 5D cardiac PCCT.
239 steps up Duke Chapel with the QIAL team! Worth it for the view, the reset, and the reminder to step back and see the bigger picture.
Congratulations to Dr. Rohan Nadkarni on successfully defending his PhD today. We are proud of all his hard work and contributions in the QIAL lab, and we wish him the very best ahead.
Congratulations to QIAL’s Dr. Alexandra Badea and Dr. Trong-Kha Truong on receiving the 2025 Medical Physics Fall Seed Grant Award for their project, “Predictive Modeling of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk Using Explainable AI and High-Resolution MRI.”
Using photon-counting CT and deep learning, we show that voluntary exercise significantly mitigates high-fat diet–induced cardiac dysfunction in adult APOE-targeted mice, with the strongest benefits observed in APOE4 and humanized innate immune (HN) backgrounds.
Exercise mitigates high-fat diet–induced cardiac dysfunction via APOE genotype- and immune-dependent mechanisms: a photon-counting CT study in adult mice. Nadkarni R., Allphin A. J., Clark D. P., Qi Y., Han Z. Y., Ghaghada K. B., Badea A., Badea C. T. PLOS ONE, 2025. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0339293
How do genetics, sex, and immune signaling shape bone health as mice age?
Our study shows that photon-counting CT in APOE mouse models reveals strong sex- and immune-dependent bone loss, with female HN mice showing the most pronounced decline.
Nadkarni, R.; Han, Z.Y.; Allphin, A.J.; Clark, D.P.; Badea, A.; Badea, C.T.
Photon-Counting Micro-CT for Bone Morphometry in Murine Models.
Tomography 2025, 11, 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/tomography11110127
Delighted to host Dr. Kristina Bliznakova, Fulbright Scholar, at Duke’s Quantitative Imaging & Analysis Lab. Looking forward to teaming up on photon-counting CT and virtual imaging.
New article and three institutions collaborating!
We identify network biomarkers of Alzheimer’s risk by combining high-res MRI with multifactorial analysis in ApoE mouse models. Joint volume + texture patterns reveal how genotype, sex, diet, & immunity interact to shape brain networks.
Bridgeford EW, Chung J, Anderson RJ, Mahzarnia A, Stout JA, Moon HS, Han ZY, Vogelstein JT, Badea A : Network biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease risk derived from joint volume and texture covariance patterns in mouse models. PLoS One 20(8): e0327118. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327118
Our team developed anatomically variable digital Wistar rat phantoms for realistic preclinical imaging simulations, enabling PCCT studies & reducing animal use.
Segars, H. E., Nadkarni, R., Badea, C. T., Badea, A., Chin, B., Johnson, G. A., Payne, J., Samei, E., & Segars, W. P. (2025). Development of anatomically variable digital Wistar rat phantoms for small animal imaging research. Medical Physics, 52(8), e18057. https://doi.org/10.1002/mp.18057
